June 18, 2008

June 18th (Reuters) – Platts, one of the world’s foremost providers of energy and metals information, today announced it has expanded its suite of daily spot price assessments to include seaborne iron ore delivered to China, iron ore’s largest consuming market. The new daily iron ore price assessment, to be known as Platts IODEX, addresses miners’ and steel makers’ need for an independent market assessed spot price against which to better determine pricing for short- and long-term contracts.

“This year’s incredible price rise in steelmaking raw materials spurred a shock wave of price increases throughout the steel products markets, the degree of which caught many by surprise,” said Francis Browne, Platts’ Global Director of Steel. Finished steel prices have risen by nearly 100% since late 2007, fuelled largely by higher costs of iron ore, which is used to feed blast furnaces. “It’s our hope that daily price assessments from Platts will facilitate the industry’s need for more timely price information and help
mitigate such surprises in the future,” explained Browne.

The Platts iron ore price assessments will capture the value in U.S. dollars per dry metric ton ($/dmt) of iron ore fines normalized to 62% iron (Fe) content with standardized impurities shipped on a cost and freight (CFR) basis to main Chinese ports. The price assessments, which began June 2nd, are reported in Platts Steel Markets Daily, an online and print publication containing news, market commentary and price information aimed at the steel, construction, and auto industries as well as commodities-focused money
managers worldwide.